Something Wicca This Way Comes
by TBAChikita
Summary: Sorta answer to a challenge. The CSI's are called on to help solve the murder of a Physicist at the MUFON convention
1. Witchy Woman

A/N: I don't own them. Please don't sue me.  
  
Note: This is in response to the "Paranormal Convention" challenge. I kinda bent the rules a bit, so I failed the challenge, but I liked the fun idea...so here goes! There are a few vague spoilers to season 2, but they really aren't noticeable.  
  
CH.1  
  
"Why's it so hard to believe?" Nick grinned at Warrick as they battled it out on the playstation in the breakroom.  
  
"I'm just sayin' there's no scientific evidence to back it up." Warrick's car pulled ahead of Nick's on the screen.  
  
"There were hundreds of witnesses, Man. They flew right over Las Vegas!" Nick hit a button on his game controller, and edged his way past Warrick. "Ha!"  
  
"Yeah, well, put a bunch of crazy believers together, throw in a little suggestion, and they'll believe they saw anything."  
  
Grissom stood at the door to the room listening intently to the exchange.  
  
"Sounds like each of you have already made up his mind." Grissom grinned as the duo jumped.  
  
"We're waiting in the conference room, or do you two not want your assignments?" Grissom smirked as both CSI's rushed passed him. He thumbed through the folders in his hands, and pulled one out, handing it to Sara as he entered the conference room.  
  
"Sara, you and Warrick have a 419 at the convention center."  
  
"Oh, no. C'mon. Send Nick." Warrick groaned thinking about the argument he had just had with Nicky regarding the MUFON convention going on downtown.  
  
"Aw, c'mon!" Sara gave him a playful grin. She knew how much he hated what he referred to as 'paranormal crap.' "It definitely won't be boring."  
  
"Yeah, right." Warrick grumbled, and followed Sara out the door.  
  
~=~=~=~=~  
  
They entered the lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center, and looked around. To Warrick's surprise, it wasn't as bad as he expected. He had envisioned something akin to a Star Trek convention, with latex-mask wearing crazies wondering the halls. Much to his relief, most people wore street clothes, and looked perfectly normal. Sara walked leisurely in, and spotted Brass.  
  
"Figure this out quick OK? These people give me the willies." Brass faked a shudder.  
  
"Lead the way." Warrick and Sara followed Detective Jim Brass through the crowd, and into a back room. A well-dressed man in suit and tie was sprawled across the podium. A strange metal object was embedded deep in his back. Doc Robbins greeted Sara with a smile.  
  
"Sara! Figures Grissom would send you for this one." He chuckled to himself.  
  
"Why's that?" Warrick shot Sara a confused look. Sara shrugged innocently, and grinned at the coroner.  
  
"I was at this thing last year. I got into a. . .um. . .scuffle over an obviously fake autopsy video, and Doc came to my rescue." She moved in closer to get a look at the victim's back. Warrick was shaking his head.  
  
"You don't buy into all this crap do you?" Warrick looked from Robbins to Sara.  
  
"It's a big universe, Warrick. Scientifically, I'm always open to the possibility." Sara ignored the disgusted look on Warrick's face, and opened up her kit on a chair next to the podium. Warrick snapped off a few photos, and looked over at Brass.  
  
"Any eye witnesses?"  
  
Brass gave him a wicked smile, and motioned for him to stay put as he left the room. A few moments later, he returned with a woman wearing what looked like your stereotypical Gypsy/Hippie wear. She wore a long, colorful skirt, a billowing white, low-cut blouse, many beaded necklaces and bracelets, and long, braided red hair.  
  
"Warrick, Sara, allow me to introduce Madame Pauline O'Sullivan. She's the wife of the victim. Says she 'sensed' something was wrong, and came running from the other side of the building. By the time she got here, he was like this." He pointed to the deceased.  
  
"You can call my Paulie." She extended a hand to shake, but both Sara and Warrick grinned sheepishly and held up their gloved hands in excuse. "Aw, yes. My goodness!" She studied Warrick thoroughly. Her eyes roving his body like he was a rare artifact. "You've got a beautiful aura. It's very strong. I bet you think this is all a bunch of nonsense."  
  
Sara turned around as not to let them see the huge grin on her face as she tried to hold in a chuckle.  
  
"Ma'am?" Brass smirked, and led the woman to a chair in the back of the room. "We're going to need to ask you a few questions. But I'm betting you already knew that right?"  
  
"I'm a Wiccan, not a psychic, Detective. But yes, I kind of figured." She was well poised, and sat straight in her chair. Brass rubbed his head. A nasty tension headache was setting in.  
  
"Here, let me help."  
  
Before he could protest, Paulie was rubbing an oil of some sort on his forehead, and gently massaging the sides of his head. Warrick and Sara stopped what they were doing and stared with mild shock at the sight of Jim Brass sitting with a dopey grin on his face while this strange woman rubbed his forehead. Sara looked to Warrick who just shrugged as if to say 'Don't look at me!'  
  
"Any better?" Paulie leaned back in her chair and examined her 'patient.'  
  
Brass sat up straight, crinkled his brow a few times, and looked thoroughly surprised.  
  
"Yeah. . .actually it feels great! What the heck is that stuff?"  
  
"An essential oil. I'm known as a healer in my circle." She smiled briefly at him, but then glanced back towards the front of the room. "I don't know who would do something like this. John didn't have any enemies that I know of." She shook her head, and held in a sob that threatened to burst out.  
  
"What was his lecture going to be on today?"  
  
"Extra-Dimensional space travel. Einstein-Rosen bridge?" She noted the blank look on Brass's face. "Worm holes are what most people call them. He actually teaches Astrophysics at UNLV."  
  
"Ah! OK. Well, did he have any trouble with any students? Any nasty phone calls? Stuff like that?"  
  
Paulie shook her head.  
  
"No! None at all. His students love him." The sob she had been holding onto finally made it's way past her lips, and she covered her face with her hands. Brass pulled a handkerchief from his jacket, and offered it to her.  
  
"Thank you. I wish there was something I could tell you that would help, but I simply have no idea who would want to hurt John." She looked back at Sara and Warrick as they worked, and studied Warrick more closely. "Who is that fellow there? Is he a police man too?"  
  
"Who? Warrick? He's a crime scene investigator. He and Sara are two of our best. They'll do their best to help." He stood and lent Paulie a hand as she rose on wobbly legs. "Is there a number we can reach you at if we have any more questions?"  
  
"Yes." She reached into her bag for a business card, and handed one to Brass. He raised his eyebrows at the title. 'Madame Pauline O'Sullivan –Coven Priestess.'  
  
"Oh, that title was John's idea. I'm not really a priestess." She shrugged as he led her from the room. Brass returned about ten minutes later, and stood beside Sara.  
  
"Find anything?"  
  
"Zip. Whoever stabbed him must have used gloves. There's not a print on this thing that we can find yet. I'll know more when we get it back to the lab and run a few more tests." She nodded to Doc Robbins who stood back as his guys carefully placed the body on a gurney, and took it out of the room. Warrick glanced around uneasily.  
  
"Something is up. This just doesn't feel right." He furrowed his brow, and looked down at the podium.  
  
"Getting a vibe, Warrick?" Brass grinned a wiseass grin.  
  
"More like a very bad feeling. What'd your hippy chick tell you?"  
  
Sara shot Warrick a nasty glare upon hearing that.  
  
"She said you have a beautiful aura."  
  
Sara snorted from beside him, and covered her mouth.  
  
"Yeah, that helps." Warrick groaned, and threw his hands up in the air.  
  
TBC 


	2. doo dee doo doo

A/N: I don't own them. Please don't sue me.  
  
CH.2  
  
"So!" Nick slapped Warrick on the back as he rounded the corner towards the break room. "How was it?"  
  
"Weird."  
  
"Where's Sara? She told me Brass got healed by a witchdoctor?" Nick smiled and crossed his arms.  
  
"Don't you have a case you should be working on?" Warrick stopped in front of the coffee maker, and poured a cup.  
  
"I'm waiting for some results from Greg." Nick leaned up against the counter. "So what was it like, Man? I always wanted to go to one of those things just to see."  
  
"Sara's with Hodges. I better go make sure he's still alive." Warrick drank down his coffee, and walked out.  
  
"Oh, and Warrick?" Nick called down the hall.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"May I just say you have a lovely aura today. Yer just glowing." Nick burst out laughing as Warrick grumbled something rude under his breath, and walked on.  
  
~=~=~=~=~  
  
"Whatta you mean, you can't find it? It's sitting right there." Sara gave Hodges a glare that might have frightened a more caring soul.  
  
"By 'I can't find it,' I mean it doesn't show up as a known substance. I can't place what it's made of in any of my databases. The mass spectrometer comes up with nothing either." He shrugged, and eyed the metallic 'dagger' intently. "You say this came from the MUFON convention?"  
  
"You're playin' me, aren't you?" She gave him a suspicious once over.  
  
He handed her the printouts.  
  
"Well, the machine must be busted." She glanced around the lab, then back down at the inconclusive readouts.  
  
"That's what I thought too. I put in a call to the tech support gurus about an hour ago. Should hear back from them any time now." Hodges looked pleased with himself.  
  
"Page me." Sara gave the foreign object another glance, left the room, and almost mowed Warrick down in the process.  
  
"Whoa!" Warrick stepped aside, and grinned.  
  
"Sorry!"  
  
"Yeah you ought to be. I hear anything else about my 'aura' and I'm gonna bust heads." He grinned grimly.  
  
"It wasn't me! Must have been Brass. Hey, take a look at this." She handed him the printouts.  
  
"Hmmm. This on our murder weapon?"  
  
Sara nodded.  
  
"Weird. You must be lovin' this."  
  
"Actually, I'd prefer a simple explanation." She smiled when she spotted Grissom walking towards them. "Grissom!" She waved the papers at him to get his attention.  
  
"How's the case going?" He looked from Sara to Warrick.  
  
"Confusing." Sara held the page out for him to see. He leaned in close, brushing against her shoulder. Warrick noted the closeness between the two, and smirked. He never saw Gris get that touchy feely with any of the others; not that he was complaining.  
  
"Did Hodges forget to put the sample in before running the machine?" Grissom put on his glasses, and studied the readings.  
  
"Tech support is on the way, but every test he ran came back the same. Unknown substance." Sara looked up at him to gauge his reaction.  
  
"Keep me posted. Meantime, Brass is finished questioning the crowd that was outside the hall just before the lecture."  
  
"You, um, spoke with Brass?" Warrick shifted uncomfortably.  
  
"Yeah." Grissom chuckled, and walked away.  
  
"Oh, that's so not cool." Warrick looked crestfallen.  
  
Sara smiled at him, and called shotgun. She didn't feel like driving today. In fact, her stomach had been feeling lousy since they got back from the convention. She told Warrick she'd meet him at the car, and headed for the morgue. Just as she'd hoped, David was finishing up the last of cleanup from an autopsy.  
  
"Hi, Sara!" He was always glad to see her.  
  
"Hey, David, do you still have those pills for upset stomach?"  
  
"Yeah. Sure. Let me finish up here, and I'll get them." He looked at her with concern written all over his face. "Rough case?"  
  
"Not this time. Just feeling a little iffy." She smiled her thanks as she took the pills.  
  
"Hope you feel better."  
  
"Thanks, David." She waved, and headed out to the parking lot to meet up with Warrick.  
  
TBC 


	3. That Warm Glow

A/N: I don't own them. Please don't sue me.  
  
*Also, MUFON is a real organization. I didn't make them up, and they are very well-organized. I hope I don't offend them, or Wiccans. My bro and his wife are Wiccan. I'm not, but I respect and am intrigued by peoples' beliefs.*  
  
CH.3  
  
"You ok? You don't look too hot." Warrick looked across the cabin of the SUV at Sara. She sat with her arms hugging herself, and leaning towards the window.  
  
"Just a lousy upset stomach. I took something for it before we left." She winced. Usually the medicine started helping by now, but Sara could feel the saliva building up in her mouth, and the cold sweat starting to form on her forehead. "On second thought, Warrick, maybe we could make a pit stop?" Sara gave Warrick a guilty look.  
  
"Right." He knew that look. He careened into the nearest fast food joint, and parked. Sara fled from the car in search of a restroom.  
  
After ten minutes, Warrick headed into the Sonic. He glanced around the crowded restaurant as he entered. A group of tourists had just descended upon the place, and it was wall-to-wall camera-toting, sunglass-wearing crazy shirts, and sunburns. He shook his head, and walked to the back towards the restrooms. As he was about to tap on the women's door, a distraught old woman came out.  
  
"Oh! Excuse me . . . is your name 'Wark'?" She looked up at him, and studied his face.  
  
"Um, Yes?" He was thrown by that.  
  
"Oh, dear. Your lady friend is really sick. She asked for me to tell you she'd be a while." The old lady gave Warrick another once over. "My first was hard too. It'll pass." She winked, and patted his arm as she left.  
  
"Whaaa?" Warrick decided to let it go. He knocked softly on the door. "Sara? You ok?"  
  
"Uhhhhhhhh."  
  
"I'll take that as a no." He glanced around quickly, and stepped inside. "I'm coming in."  
  
Sara stood leaning against the wall over the sinks holding a wet napkin to her forehead.  
  
"Ok. That's it. You're going to your doctor. You look awful." He placed an arm around her waist to stabilize her. "Alrighty. Slow and steady does it." He helped her out the back door, and back into the Tahoe. She was barely conscious.  
  
"Hey. Hey! Sara? You still with me? Oh, great." Warrick turned the car around, and headed for the hospital. "Hang on." He turned on the police light in the cabin that he never got to use.  
  
~=~=~=~  
  
"I need to ask you a few questions about your colleague." The doctor took a seat beside Warrick in the private room. "Do you know where she has been the past twenty-four hours? We need to trace her every step."  
  
Warrick was getting even more concerned.  
  
"Why? What's up? She's been working a double shift with me the past sixteen hours."  
  
"Has she had anything to eat?" The doctor jotted a few things down on his notepad.  
  
"I don't know. I haven't been babysitting her. She's a big girl." He was getting irritated now. "You wanna cut the crap, and tell me what this is all about?"  
  
"Your coworker is suffering from mild radiation sickness. She appears to have been exposed to a dangerous level of radiation, and we are trying to determine where in Las Vegas this could have happened."  
  
"What?" Warrick shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense. We've been working a case together. How come I'm not sick too?"  
  
"We'd like to run s few tests on you as well. On a purely physical note, you're much larger than she is." The doctor wrote something more down. "I've placed a call to your supervisor to let him know that we're placing you both in temporary quarantine. It's totally voluntary, but we do highly recommend it until we get to the bottom of this."  
  
"Yeah. Whatever. Just keep me posted on how Sara's doing." Warrick grumbled something the doctor couldn't quite make out under his breath. So much for a boring night of collecting evidence. Grissom would not be happy, especially when he found out Sara was sick. Warrick groaned, and reached for the remote control to the tiny TV set hung precariously from the corner. Where on earth had they come into contact with radiation? He sat back, and tried to clear his head. He hoped Grissom would come soon with some answers.  
  
TBC 


	4. radioactive labrats

A/N: I don't own them. Please don't sue me.  
  
CH.4  
  
"Yeah?" Grissom answered his phone hurriedly as he walked through the quiet halls of the lab.  
  
"Hey, Gris. Just thought you might want to know Sara and Warrick is a no- show. I've been standing here in front of the conference hall with a bunch of angry Ufologists. What gives?" Brass sounded a bit ticked off.  
  
"I don't know, Jim. Did you already try their cell phones?"  
  
"No, I thought I'd try telepathy."  
  
Grissom grinned.  
  
"I'll see what going on." Grissom hung up just in time to hear his name paged over the loud speaker. He hated that thing. He swore softly under his breath, and headed for his office, and a more private line.  
  
"This is Gil Grissom."  
  
"Mr. Grissom, my name's Dr. Lincoln over at St. Elizabeth Hospital. We've got two of your employees here for observation. One is suffering from radiation sickness, and we're waiting on the test results of the other."  
  
"Radiation?" Grissom was floored. "I don't know where they could have come in contact with any radiation, but I'll check all the evidence they brought in from the case they're working. Are they alright?" He knew the effects of radiation poisoning. There was no known cure, and if a heavy enough doses occurred, death was relatively quick and very painful.  
  
"So far, just Miss Sidle shows any real signs of the sickness."  
  
Grissom's heart sank to his stomach.  
  
"It seems mild enough. No permanent damage was done. She's just very weak, and won't have much of an appetite for a few days. We've paced her in a quarantine room for her own safety. In cases of radiation poisoning, the body's immune system is highly compromised. She might not be able to fight off sickness and infection until this works its way through her system."  
  
"Thank you, Doctor. I'll let you know as soon as I look into the case they've been working." Grissom hung up the phone, and took a deep breath, and flipped open his cell phone.  
  
"Brass."  
  
"Jim? How are you feeling?"  
  
"That supposed to be funny?" Brass was not amused.  
  
"Sara and Warrick are at the hospital. Somewhere along the line, she came in contact with radiation. Are any of the people you questioned suffering from nausea? Vomiting? Anything at all?" Grissom could hear Brass asking around in the group he had sequestered.  
  
"Nah. Nothing. Radiation, huh? That's creepy. I'll put a call in to my haz- mat guys. You realize I'm gonna have to call this one in to the homeland security force-local yolkals, right? They're gonna love this." Brass groaned.  
  
"Have them go over that entire auditorium. That's the only room you guys were in right?"  
  
"Yeah. Will do. Tell your guys I hope they feel better." Brass said sincerely as he closed his phone.  
  
Grissom headed down the hall towards the evidence room, but stopped as someone caught his eye in the trace lab.  
  
"Hodges?" Grissom walked into the lab, and around the counter. Hodges was sitting in his chair clutching his stomach and groaning.  
  
"Yeah? Whatta you want?" He looked up to see Grissom hovering over him. "Oh. Sorry. Didn't know it was you."  
  
"How are you feeling?" Grissom stood back, examining his least favorite lab tech carefully.  
  
"Awful. In fact, I was just going to request a bit of sick leave. Otherwise things could get compromised." He gestured around the lab.  
  
"Actually, I'd like you to go to the hospital. I'll call for the ambulance. I think you've got radiation sickness."  
  
Hodges' eyes flew open in terror.  
  
"What? What do mean? Radiation? How?" He tried to stand, but decided against it quickly, as the nausea returned, and his face went white as a sheet.  
  
"Just relax. I need to know what evidence from Sara and Warrick's case you've been processing."  
  
"This is their fault, isn't it?" He growled.  
  
"Hodges?" Grissom tried again to get his attention. "Hodges! What evidence have you been processing? From the MUFON case?"  
  
Hodges nodded in sudden recognition.  
  
"It's about that thing isn't it? I knew there was something weird about it. You probably thought I broke the Mas Spec right? Ohhhhh . . . I think I need to go to the little boy's room." Hodges made an effort to stand again, only to fall weakly back into his seat.  
  
"Ok. Where is the evidence?" Grissom flipped open his phone, and dialed for an ambulance. Hodges pointed to the strange-looking metallic object on the counter top held in place by a vice. "Are you and Sara the only ones to work with it?"  
  
Hodges nodded weakly. Grissom breathed a sigh of relief, and helped the faltering lab tech up, and out of the room, closing and locking the door behind them.  
  
TBC 


	5. It's all fun & games til somebody loses ...

A/N: I don't own them. Please don't sue me.  
  
After a long hiatus, I've been prodded back into my online fanfic writing, (and my arm was sore from a little altercation over a potential tattoo!), as I've got writer's block on my own stuff. But, be warned. . . maybe not this chapter, maybe not even this fic, but I'm in dark writing mode, so beware. Here be Angst.  
  
CH.5  
  
As the Hazardous Materials team made their way into the building, all eyes were on the halls. It's not every day you see people in funny-looking yellow suits walk into your workplace.  
  
"Gil Grissom?" A tall man in his late forties approached Grissom, extended a rubber-clad hand.  
  
"Yes. The object in question is right inside this lab. Only two of my people worked with it. Both show signs of radiation poisoning. They're in quarantine at County General."  
  
The man nodded, and pulled his haz-mat hood securely over his head before entering the lab. Grissom looked on while the man ran his meter over the object. Loud clicking was heard whenever it was directly above it. Strangely, there didn't seem to be any signs of radiation anywhere else in the room. The object was not giving off radiation at all, unless. . . He touched the metallic-looking dagger with his glove while holding the device away from it. As he touched it, the meter clicked away. The dosimeter on his suit beeped alarmingly. He looked back at Grissom through the glass. Grissom noted what had occurred as well, and merely shrugged his shoulders in astonishment. It only gave off radiation when touched. Grissom flipped open his phone, and called Robbins. He wanted to examine the body of their late physicist.  
  
~=~=~=~  
  
Warrick sat beside Sara's bed reading a copy of Architectural Digest. Sara flipped through the channels on the small TV mounted in the upper corner of the room.  
  
"How much longer are we going to be stuck here?" She grumbled.  
  
"Long as they say so. You're feeling better I take it?" He grinned at her attitude.  
  
"Totally. I hate hospitals." She looked over at him as he read. "Where'd you get the magazine?" She eyed him suspiciously.  
  
"It was in the nightstand."  
  
"Any others in there?"  
  
"Only Parenting." He threw her the Parenting magazine, and laughed.  
  
"Great." Sara scowled, but opened up the magazine. She was bored.  
  
To Warrick's great amusement, Sara quickly became engrossed in an article about birth weight, and commented on how much she liked the artwork throughout the magazine as well. A soft knock on the door ended their reading session.  
  
"Miss Sidle? Mr. Brown?" The doctor entered, and stood at the foot of the bed.  
  
"When can we leave?" Sara was the first to speak what was on their minds.  
  
"As soon as you like. You're both in the clear. You were very lucky, Miss Sidle."  
  
Sara hated being called 'Miss Sidle', but held her tongue if it meant leaving sooner.  
  
"You suffered only minimal radiation poisoning. Not enough to cause any serious damage to your bones or lymphatic system. However, radiation poisoning is cumulative. In the future, you'll have to take extra precaution to avoid any contact. And I don't think I need to give you a lecture on sun screen." He jotted a few things down on her paperwork, and hung it back on her door. "You may still feel weak and nauseous for a few days. I'd suggest bed rest."  
  
Sara breathed a sigh of relief, and Warrick was beaming.  
  
"Your colleague is still in danger though, I'm afraid. He suffered much more prolonged exposure." The doctor stopped at the door.  
  
"Our colleague? Who?" Warrick was confused. Had Brass been too close to the thing as well?  
  
Sara suddenly realized who it had to be.  
  
"Hodges!" She looked over at Warrick.  
  
"Oh, man! He was handling that thing all day!" He hadn't even thought about the usually unpleasant lab tech.  
  
"That would explain it, I'm afraid. Your supervisor brought him in a few hours ago, and called the haz-mat team to pick up the radioactive object. I've been told that your lab is completely clean now. However unlikely I feel that is, they assure me that you are in no further danger." He nodded to them both, and left the room.  
  
"Poor Hodges." Sara shook her head. She didn't really dislike him as much as the others seemed to. She respected his abilities, and found his attitude kind of amusing. So long as he processed her evidence fast and accurately, she had no real problem with him. Sara knew all about the affects of radiation on the human body. She remembered studying Chernobyl in her college Ethics class. Mass exposures to radiation can totally destroy the body's ability to ward off infection by destroying blood cells and platelets, and the ability to create them. It can cause mass hemorrhaging or anemia. The damage is considered irreversible, and the brain, spleen, and lymphatic system often suffer the worst. Sara took a deep breaths. She could've died without ever being given the chance to fight back. Of all the ways she had thought about being killed in her line of work, radiation poisoning had never come up as an option.  
  
"Hey. I'm sure he'll be fine too. He's too damn stubborn not to be." Warrick tried to reassure her as he stood. "You ready to get out of this place?"  
  
"Yeah. Could you, uh, get my bag out of the car?" She suddenly realized she had nothing on but a hospital gown which left a bit to be desired around back.  
  
Warrick chuckled.  
  
"Sure. Be back in a few." He walked out to the hall, and reached in his pocket for his phone. Grissom would want to know they're ok. He stopped as he was about to dial, and headed back for the nurse's station.  
  
"Hi. I'm Warrick Brown, Las Vegas crime lab. Any chance you could tell me how a colleague of mine is doing?" He gave the nurse a broad smile as he leaned over the counter hoping his charm and credentials would win her over. She smiled, blushed, and click on an icon on her screen.  
  
"What's the name, Hun?" She winked at him, and Warrick grinned.  
  
"Last name is Hodges. He was brought in a few hours ago."  
  
TBC 


End file.
